


there you are (you're there with open arms)

by dosomnolence



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bodyswap, Gen, M/M, Soulmates, mentions of bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27711583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dosomnolence/pseuds/dosomnolence
Summary: Taeyong starts switching into his soulmate's body when he is six.
Relationships: Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong
Comments: 27
Kudos: 164
Collections: Challenge #3 — soulmates





	there you are (you're there with open arms)

When Taeyong was six years old, he woke up in the hospital. He was certain he had been at the playground beside his apartment building a moment ago, riding his scooter around the outside edge of the gritty tanbark. His mother had been sitting on the bench, discussing something with Minjung's mother that Taeyong didn't really care to know about. Taeyong wanted to show his mother a new trick he made up, but as he shuffled down the gravelly path, his scooter crunching along beside him, everything went dark. He had always been a little off kilter, different from other kids, unique, the people around him would say. But this, was decidedly different.

When he opened his eyes, he was lying on a hospital bed, leg burning in what he was only describe as the most excruciating pain he had ever felt. His lungs burst with a sharp wail, and his own voice surprised him. Several unfamiliar faces rushed to his side, hovering above him, with varying frowns. One of the faces belonged to a lady in a white coat, and she checked a clear plastic bag hung up to the right side of his bed.

"It's okay, Dongyoung, it will stop hurting soon, okay, mommy's here." Another lady said, stroking the side of Taeyong's head. "You're my brave boy, aren't you? You're so strong."

Taeyong felt warm.

His eyes began to close, suddenly much heavier than they were a few minutes ago. He wanted to go to sleep.

"I'm Taeyong, not Dongyoung." He said, instead. "Where's my mom?"

The lady dropped her hand from Taeyong's head, eyes widening as she turned to the lady in the white coat. Doctor, his brain supplied. The doctor turned back to the warm-smiled lady and checked the clipboard at the foot of the bed.

"There doesn't appear to be any signs of head injury or trauma. I mean, it is possible that is this.. he is so young, though." The doctor turned to Taeyong, "Could you please tell me your name and birthday, if you know it?"

"My name is Lee Taeyong, my birthday is on the 1st of July, and I'm six years old." Taeyong held up six fingers the way his teacher had shown him earlier that week, blinking heavy as the world lost its focus around him.

The warm-smiled lady brushed his hair back from the side of his forehead, and Taeyong wanted a little for her to hug him. "This is Dongyoung," she pointed at Taeyong. "You must be his soulmate."

Soulmate.

Taeyong hadn't heard of that word before. He supposed, once he returned to his own mother, he could ask her what that meant. For now, though, he closed his eyes and leaned into Dongyoung's mother's hand.

When Taeyong woke up next to his own mother, a cone of ice cream almost finished in his hand, she gleamed and told him all about the boy who wanted ice cream so bad he clutched it in his hand all the way to the hospital. The boy that was going to, as his mother put it, make his life complete.

___

It was about a year later that it happened again. Taeyong was eating cake at Minjung's seventh birthday party, strawberry and cream cake to be precise, his favourite, and his stomach began to feel hollow. He rubbed his stomach the way his mother did when he felt sick, but it didn't go away.

He saw Yoonmi turn to him from his left and open her mouth, "Are you-"

And he was outside. On a wooden porch, with a bright green farmland stretching out as far as Taeyong could see. Nestled in Taeyong's right hand, he noticed a five thousand won note. He looked around the porch, and saw a man he didn't recognize, swaying back and forth on a rocking chair with his eyes closed, and a hat perched on top of his face.

Taeyong was about to ask him where he was, and how he could get back to Minjung's birthday party, please, but the man peeked open an eye and held up his hand.

"Dongyoung, if you want to keep the five thousand won, you're going to have to stay quiet, okay?"

Taeyong pouted as he leaned against the railing, gazing out into the rolling hills blanketed with different colours of flowers. He had never seen a field quite like it, not even when he went to visit his grandmother.

"...not listening? Hello, earth to Dongyoung! Dongyoung!!"

Taeyong blinked up to his left. There was a boy a little older than him, who looked familiar. His brain, or maybe it was Dongyoung's brain (Taeyong wasn't too sure how this whole soulmate switch concept worked yet) said hyung, but Taeyong stayed silent.

The older boy squinted his eyes at Taeyong, jutting his nose in front of Taeyong to take a closer look. "Uncle, I don't think that's Dongyoung."

Dongyoung's uncle lifted the tip of his hat from above his face, and grinned so Taeyong could see all his crooked teeth. "You must be the soulmate from Seoul I keep hearing about."

"I'm Donghyun, Dongyoung's older brother." He stuck out his hand, beaming. "I didn't get to meet you last time."

Taeyong glanced at Dongyoung's uncle. "Will Dongyoung get in trouble?"

Dongyoung's uncle barked out a hearty chortle, "No, no, I'll concede because it's you." He ruffled Taeyong's (Dongyoung's) hair and replaced his hat over his face.

Donghyun was all toothy grins and loud giggles as he dragged Taeyong all around the house.

"This is our grandmother's house, we were looking for Dongyoung so we could play this game, because we need four people."

He met two of Dongyoung's cousins, and Taeyong played with them until he eventually switched back to himself.

Dongyoung had been sitting at Taeyong's desk in his room.

"Noona, why did you let him touch my stuff!" Taeyong whined as his sister came in with a mint chocolate ice cream cone.

"Oh, don't be like that Taeyong, look, he wrote you a message."

_I am Kim Dongyoung. Want to be friends?_

Taeyong frowned at the messy writing on his favourite sketchbook, but he wrote underneath in much nicer letters, for when Dongyoung switched with him the next time:

_I am Lee Taeyong. Ok._

\---

Taeyong was thirteen, and an avid middle school hater, when he switched into Dongyoung's body and felt scared for his life.

He had somehow switched while Dongyoung was in mid-air and he managed to stick a shaky landing on freshly combed sand. An eruption of cheers pulled his attention to his left, where a group of school kids held up a banner that read 'Kim Dongyoung FIGHTING!!' with hearts replacing the exclamation points, from the stands.

Taeyong gawked as grabby hands ushered him off the sand and to the side, where a bunch of boys clapped him on the back and messed up his hair.

"Good work! You looked a little shaky for a second, but that landing was definitely impressive. Now let's hope 6-F doesn't upstage you." A PE teacher said, popping both thumbs up at him.

"What's wrong with you, man, you feeling sick or something?" A teammate asked.

Taeyong opened his mouth and closed it again. Did Dongyoung tell anyone else he had been switching with his soulmate? Was he supposed to say something? Did Dongyoung want to keep it a secret?

"Wait, wait, wait..." someone else said.

Taeyong froze.

"Are you Lee Taeyong?"

Taeyong blanched, staring the boy who spoke with wary eyes.

"It's okay, Dongyoung told us this might happen," He smiled with his eyes. "I'm Jaekyung. I've been waiting so long to meet the guy who is stuck with Dongyoung for the rest of your poor, unfortunate life."

Taeyong shook Jaekyung's outstretched hand. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing, you'll find out in due time. Anyways, want to ditch and go to the arcade?"

A flurry of their teammates tackled Jaekyung to the ground. "Not until we win 1st place!"

They ended up coming in 2nd, to his team's dismay. But Taeyong felt pride well up in his stomach all the same.

When he switched back, Dongyoung had detailed all about how it wasn't his fault that Taeyong's user was now banned from his favourite game site. He insisted that it was the other player's fault for insulting Taeyong, and Dongyoung was just putting him his place, defending Taeyong's honour.

Taeyong must have laughed at that paragraph for a good fifteen minutes, and he conceded, maybe his middle school life wouldn't be so bad after all.

\---

Taeyong had crouched in the corner of his high school classroom, the loud jeers of his classmates echoing in his ears. He wanted to disappear. He felt the familiar swooping in his stomach and along with a bout of relief, he was struck with such a burning sense of worry. He couldn't leave Dongyoung in a situation like that.

He came to in Dongyoung's living room, kneeling beside Donghyun, Dongyoung's mother reprimanding the both of them. But her voice held so much love, so much affection, even in her sternness, that Taeyong brought his (Dongyoung's) hands up to his face, and cried.

"Taeyong?" Dongyoung's mother asked. She was so gentle, even more-so than before. "It's Taeyong, isn't it?"

Taeyong nodded.

"I'm sorry about that, Dongyoung punched his friend today, for a very silly reason," she looked pointedly at Donghyun. "You didn't deserve that." She said, patting Taeyong's head. "Do you want some banana milk?"

Taeyong followed her up, and Donghyun made a motion to follow them, too, when Dongyoung's mother turned back to him. "Now you stay put. You've got some more reflecting to do."

Donghyun groaned.

Taeyong found himself at the kitchen counter, sipping on banana milk and, for whatever reason, spilling all his worries to Dongyoung's mother, as if she had a magical charm that compelled him.

She patted his back and held his cheeks and smiled her lovely, warm eye smile, until he felt better.

"And don't worry about Dongyoung. He'll be fine."

She was right.

When he switched back to himself, his classmates had almost comically flipped their attitudes. They sat in front of him on their knees, sheepish, and muttered apologies, with reddening cheeks and tears in the corners of their eyes.

Taeyong wished he could have read Dongyoung's entry in their little diary for that day, because not a single one of his classmates brought it up, ever again.

\---

_When do you think we'll meet? - DY_

_I don't know, why don't we exchange numbers? - TY_

_I tried before to call myself with your phone, it didn't work. - DY_

_You're pretty cool. I don't know how to thank you. - TY_

_Don't thank me, I'm just looking out for my life partner. Can't have you being a loser, not when you're the soulmate of the one and only Kim Dongyoung. - DY_

_I really want to meet you. - TY_

_Me too. - DY_

\---

The next switch took Taeyong from his after school internet cafe, to a school gym. After being propositioned to join 'one of the big three companies' by a fishy business man, Taeyong had been trying to focus on levelling up his new favourite character. The switches had become commonplace enough that Taeyong could feel them coming. His stomach dropped, as usual; and he waited for the tell-tale change in surroundings as he blinked and opened his eyes to Dongyoung's high school gym.

Except, he was on stage. In front of him stood a crowd of people jumping up and down to the beat the drummer played behind him. The guitarist was jamming it out with his part, and Taeyong's blood rushed to his head.

Taeyong knew this song. And this is where the vocalist came in.

Taeyong raised the mic to his mouth, taking a breath. Trusting that, like all the times before, Dongyoung's body would fall into its regular patterns.

The sounds that came out of his mouth, Dongyoung's voice, washed over the crowd and garnered even more cheers and yells, and Taeyong felt incredible.

Being on stage was addictive, Taeyong decided. The rush, the energy, the power he felt, was unlike anything ever before.

When he switched back, he took the card out of his pocket and made a resolution. He may not have been the ace of his class like Dongyoung, or wowing crowds with his voice like Dongyoung. But Taeyong wanted something with a passion, for maybe the first time.

He didn't even have it in him to be mad at the little post it with Dongyoung's rounded scribbles reading: _Sorry I think I banned you from here, too ^^_

\---

Taeyong felt odd, on the eleventh day of November in 2013. He felt like he was about to switch into Dongyoung's body again, the hollowing of his stomach still familiar, even if it had been at least a year.

He turned from his conversation with Yuta to the lobby, but there was no one he could recognize.

It was only after he returned to his room in the dorms, seeing the little birthday hat on the calendar, that he remembered it was Dongyoung's mom's birthday. He pulled out his old phone from the box underneath his bed and plugged it in to the powerpoint behind his beside table. The phone took a few more minutes to switch on, then load his contacts, sluggish from disuse.

He called _Dongyoungie's mother_ and wondered if it was too late for her to answer. He checked the time, but it was just shy of ten at night.

"Hello?" She picked up after the third ring, her voice still the same lovely, soothing voice, that had brought him comfort since he was young.

"Happy Birthday," Taeyong said, belatedly realizing his voice would have changed, his phone number would have changed, and he sounded almost completely different to-

"Taeyongie?" She asked, and Taeyong almost felt like crying.

"How did you know?"

"How wouldn't I know, you precious boy? Listen, listen, today-"

And she told him about Dongyoung being casted into SM Entertainment, and that today was his first day and that, maybe, just maybe now that he was in Seoul too, they could finally meet.

Even the thought left Taeyong breathless.

-

It was a few days later, that Taeyong saw him, smile bright and brilliant, gums peeking out from under his lips. He had a bag of nuts in his hand. Ah, Taeyong had heard those rumours about the new boy on that nut diet.

Johnny's words tuned out into the background as Dongyoung came into view. A warmth bubbled in his chest and he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

There he was.

Dongyoung must have noticed. Something, whatever it was, their bond, drawing their footsteps closer and closer, until Taeyong was running.

Dongyoung was running, too, leaving Jeno and Donghyuck's confused frowns in his wake. The bag of nuts fell from his fingertips as recognition struck him, too.

They collided in front of Vocal Room 1, arms finding their own way around each other. Taeyong was so warm. He pressed his face into Dongyoung's shoulder, breathing in the same cologne from the last time. And Dongyoung was laughing, his beautiful, breathy laugh that Taeyong had felt reverberate through him. He was laughing as they moulded to each other.

He knew, from then on, that this would be forever.

Every little thing clicked perfectly into place.

**Author's Note:**

> Not 100% satisfied with this but, still posting. It is after all, dotae and soulmates.


End file.
